Here's my mind working up crazy ideas while i stare at unrideably choppy water. What it there was a way of creating the perfect wake, without a boat, lake, or need for a lot of space!? The ability to have riding regardless of the weather. I'm sure most of you have seen endless pools and those surfing machines, well what if you had two machines (or one crafty one) side by side to recreate a wake that was always consistent and could run for ever. I looked into those endless surf machines at http://waveloch.com and mentally put two of the small ones side by side. If you could kind of tweak the machine so rather than the water running up the face of the machine, but laterally so it would mimic forward movement, couldn't you recreate boat riding? As I run my mind here, the only problem I can foresee is line tension, but couldn't you solve that with some sort of slow retraction device, similar to auto-belay mechanisms at a climbing wall?

Last edited by Jmaxymek; 03-27-2012 at 12:41 PM.
Reason: missed some words

Ive thought about this too, and I think ive seen it on here before or on WW. I dont think line tension would be a big issue, because being on edge with moving water under your board would push you away from the tow point, giving you at least some tension. I think the bigger problem is moving that volume of water at ~20mph without making it whitewater/bubbly/chaotic.

This has been discussed before and there are a couple issues.
1. I'm not going wake to wake in 6" of water. But you can be my guest.
2. The running water has totally different physics. If you were somehow able to kick up a wake it would feel pretty different from a boat wake.
I'm totally lost on your point about line tension. Why does the line need to retract?

The retracting line would compensate for the forward movement of the boat. You leave one wake, but are traveling forwards at ~23 mph and not landing in the exact opposite place on the other side of the wake.

You're looking at it from the wrong frame of reference. The rider is always a fixed length from the boat, and therefore always at the same point back on the wake, so essentially there is no forward movement. Line doesn't move on the boat, so it doesn't need to move on the simulator either. But it still wouldn't work.

if you look at the surf machines, they can't shape the wave themselves, they have to have a structure to form the wave. If you wanna do the same thing, youll need a structure to form the wake, and thats not really the issue, what is the issue is that past a certain depth itll be really hard to shape a wake. but nobody is gonna wanna ride on 6' of water. lol if you can figure out how to shape a wake, in 6 feet of 22mph moving water, ill be one of the first to jump in, but the amount of energy to move that much water just seems crazy to me. But don't let haters stop you! shoot for your dreams ahhaha

You're looking at it from the wrong frame of reference. The rider is always a fixed length from the boat, and therefore always at the same point back on the wake, so essentially there is no forward movement. Line doesn't move on the boat, so it doesn't need to move on the simulator either. But it still wouldn't work.

agreed. You need to stair at a fan and think....is the fan spinning or is the room spinning around then fan its all about relative motion.

I have thought about this as well. mine was a bit different. have a deep pool, with a weighted boat that was staionary by cables or chains or whatever, move the water and ride just like you normally would. But like metioned before, moving that amount of water would be extremeley difucult. And man, when you fall, get ready for a ride.....

If you look back at the surf machines, it definitely isn't 6 feet of water. Closer to 6 inches. But you're right either way. Although 6 feet isn't that bad. During a late season wakeskate set I took a bail, swam back to the skate, and then stood up. Freaked out everyone in the boat to see my chest above water (it was about 4 feet). Didn't even notice until my foot hit the bottom as I was treading water.

damn, i meant type 6" lol off by one second on the shift key, thats actually a really scary story lol i think my father would be more worried about running the boat aground than my falling in 4 feet of water though hahha and the stationary boat idea wouldnt be bad if the water was in a loop like Crew training tanks are!

I dont want to let the secret out but we ride at night, full moons ecpecially. A nice light bar and your set! Its the HOLY GRAIL of riding. You do have to use your Jedi landing skills out in the flats, but It makes you a better rider. No boats, no wind the smoooothest water EVER!! I sit at my desk at work and remember thse nights, they are very special. I only have one of us surfing that I can find. Oh, and watch out for snakes. lol. Funny story.

Oooh I've had a couple of the best rides of my life at night on a full moon riding through the 5 mph islands at lake berryessa to boot! In the islands rangers can't see your running lights yaaaa buddy "pirates!"

This is something I had thought about as some others have said. The things that are beyond me to this point is.
1st you need 6' to 8' of moving water and something similar to a boat hull to create a wake. This I think you could get done may take a little time to get right. The big issue to me is now you have moving water instead of you moving across it. How the hell do you get out of 20mph moving water without killing yourself when you fall.

I don't think you have to worry about the water moving 20mph and getting out. The water would probably have the most speed ( maybe force would be a better way to look at it) near the jets and would disperse as it reaches the end of the pool, which I guess would get gradually shallower and shallower as well. So you would come to the surface, the force would be less, and the amount of water pushing on you would be less. On top of that, maybe the machine would stop pumping water or minimally slow down after a fall. Just my two cents. I've thought of this stuff before two. You could probably get by with making a wake in shallower water with a contoured pool bottom. I don't know how much of a buffer between the water surface and bottom of the pool is possible. It would be cool to have a wake-shaped pool and have a two-three foot layer of water to ride in, with the wake actually being higher than the flats.